Watch the story of how Lauren Manning got herself out of the white supremacist movement.

Born in Toronto, Lauren Manning grew up with low self-esteem. Her father, who she was very close to, died when she was 16 years old, shattering her world.

Lauren grew up with a racist grandfather. Coupled with her fear of being alone in the world and her lack of a sense of belonging, she was easy prey for white supremacists, who groomed and radicalized her as a teenager.

One night, battered and bleeding from fight which could have ended in her and her friends being murdered, two black men stood by her side and helped her with respect and care — despite the fact that they certainly saw all the Nazi-themed tattoos on her body.

This incident marked a significant turning point in her life, causing her to question the ideology she had bought into at such a young age. Lauren subsequently made the decision to leave the group. She now fights for tolerance and challenges hate.

]]>Free-For-All Violence in the US: How Will It End?https://clarionproject.org/free-for-all-violence-in-us/
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 07:48:20 +0000https://clarionproject.org/?p=64186Will politicians and the media continue to ignore the violence?

]]>Souvenirs and electronics lay scattered in a shop in Times Shop after a night of violence (Photo: John Moore/Getty Images)

The recent threat of Antifa along with other extremist groups rolling into suburbs of New York (see below) may have been fake news launched by a Far Right group, but these groups have managed to kickstart all-out violence and looting in major American cities.

Talk show host and conservative personality Meghan McCain, also a New Yorker, calls New York a war zone.

My neighborhood in Manhattan is eviscerated and looks like a war zone. DeBlasio and Cuomo are an utter disgrace. This is not America. Our leaders have abandoned us and continue to let great American cities burn to the ground and be destroyed. I never could have fathomed this

The managing editor of Human Events, Ian Miles Cheong, tweeted a secretly recorded video of the street violence in New York City. It’s a horrific scene with simultaneous chaotic acts of violence by thugs and criminals who are getting a free pass under the city’s “leadership.”

Recently, Clarion Project shared a photo of residents of Long Island, New York, waiting in line for close to five hours to purchase a gun to protect themselves. The photo went viral on Twitter, remarkable because the community is not characterized as gun aficionados.

The violence green-lighted by Antifa and ignored or supported by Democratic politicians and the mainstream media for years, is now threatening to encroach quiet American neighborhoods, even if it’s not Antifa directly at this point. A Staten Island resident who has asked to remain anonymous contacted Clarion Project today with a circulating threat targeting nine New York suburbs effective June 3, 2020.

The alert — complete with multiple fist pump emoticons like we see shared by socialists and an Islamist congresswoman — also reads, “If your not the cause you are against us!!”

It’s unconfirmed whether the threat is another hoax or a call to draw in rioters and looters. Our source, a single mother with a small child, decided to flee her home for fear of not being able to defend herself or her young family against a mob. Out of respect for her wishes, we won’t be sharing the riot alert as inadvertent advertisement for violence.

“A substantial minority of people sort of no longer believe in the foundation or the justness of the country. Where we go from here is a pretty scary place,” – David Reaboi.

“[They believe] the [American] system has to come down,” explains Reaboi, a senior vice president at Security Studies Group, in an interview with Al Arabiya in which he describes what Antifa activists want. What was once a protest against brutal police violence is now a protest against the American nation.

Reaboi has long pointed to an inevitable civil war driven by identity politics:

“We are in a very complicated time, and while we can be nuanced issue to issue, there is a bigger overarching crisis that we need to be focused on as Americans before anything else. We need to get riots and emotion under control ASAP because there is a broader sinister movement that’s hijacking protests, outrage, and genuine human empathy.

That is how extremist groups like Antifa have been operating, and often under the cover of Democratic Socialists and celebrity politicians like ‘The Squad’ who continued to turn a blind eye to violence long before George Floyd was murdered. These are not just anarchists. They are nihilists. When a group like Antifa and its supporters gets full control, they will burn it all, even the good intentions.”

In June 2019, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocascio-Cortez and other members of “The Squad” refused to condemn an attack on an ICE detention facility initiated by an Antifa activist. Similar targeted violence erupted for at least five days straight after then-candidate Trump won the 2016 presidential election.

]]>Guns, Police & Fear: How Antifa is Changing the Face of Americahttps://clarionproject.org/guns-police-fear-how-antifa-is-changing-the-face-of-america/
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 13:55:06 +0000https://clarionproject.org/?p=64179A hard look at what the extremists want & how they plan to get it

]]>Protesters affiliated with the Antifa movement demonstrate in NYC in November 2019 (Photo: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

Reports on the ground indicate that intelligence given to President Trump – that Antifa has used the unrest over the killing of Geroge Floyd by a policeman to instigate a violent insurrection – is correct.

There are, of course, other elements involved, specifically the looters who have joined Antifa and delight in smashing and burning anything in their way (and taking free stuff).

In the following report, we break down

What Antifa wants for America

How Antifa Plans to Get What They Want

How Antifa has sparked the loss of confidence in the government to keep Americans safe and how everyday Americans are arming themselves

The future of the police and our country

What Antifa Wants

Antifa is an extremist movement that demands nothing less than the destruction of America and its democratic system of government.

Put succinctly by Clarion’s National Correspondent Shireen Qudosi:

“Nothing short of burning the country down and re-coding civilization will satisfy them. Same goes for radical politicians supporting Antifa. Every other supporter is being suckered into thinking it’s anything different.” – Shireen Qudosi, National Correspondent / PVE

How Antifa Plans to Get What They Want

Antifa, like their “counterparts” on the Far Right, wants to stoke a race war to hasten the disintegration of America. They prey on the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which has peaceful and violent elements.

Antifa thrives on stoking violence and instigating within the BLM movement and inventing propaganda in the name of BLM to instill fear and hate.

As journalist Laura Logan points out:

THIS IS HOW ANTIFA ANARCHISTS ARE TRYING TO SPREAD FEAR AND CREATE A RACE WAR. That is what professional agitators do – provoke people into acting while they and their political backers stoke the fires of hate. These people seek to divide – not unite. Just ask them. I have pic.twitter.com/uYPKmLzQqi

Rebel News reporter Anna Slatz, who has been covering the unrest in Washington, D.C., watched firsthand and recorded how peaceful protests turned violent after Antifa showed up after dark (however, it should be noted that due to a 7 p.m. curfew in the city, any protester on the street at night was most likely looking to participate in violent activity).

The following is a taste of the typical modus operandi of Antifa:

Do decent, grieving people take these items to a peaceful protest? America, turn the lights on. The people you say you care about are being used as shields for a violent, extreme political agenda. https://t.co/Ij1J54Sys0

Based on the disinformation campaigns like the one above and others, Antifa’s strategy seems to also include getting the police to do their “dirty work.” For example, Antifa tries to provoke the police to the point where the police end up being accused of using “excessive force” or killing a rioter (whether on purpose or accidentally, it doesn’t matter to Antifa, as long as the police officer is white and the victim is black).

How Antifa has sparked the loss of confidence in the government to keep Americans safe and how everyday Americans are arming themselves

It is ironic to note that, in all but one city where the riots are occurring, Democrats — who largely share the belief of many of the protesters that American society is racist to its core — are running the show.

The Democrat mayors also largely subscribe to the “venting” philosophy. Most have made the decision to let violent protesters riot, loot and burn and told their police departments to stand down.

Antifa, which is highly organized at the local level in terms of calling the shots at the riots (and supplying rioters with bricks as well as incendiary devices), has noted the decisions of the mayors and taken advantage of them.

This has made the American public terrified as they see the violence getting closer to home.

Indeed, one Clarion source reported a 50-person lineup at a local gun store in an upscale neighborhood on Long Island:

Spent most of the first 30 years of my life on Long Island. The only people who really own guns are veterans and cops. Most other people believe guns are extreme. Totally out of line with most of the country. This is major. People are terrified.https://t.co/MfkhWvCciA

Another tweeted: “This is a sign that people are exercising their constitutional rights. It’s also a sign that New York’s leadership has utterly failed the people and deserves to be thrown out of office in unforgiving disgrace.” @BrianDeanWright

The future of the police force in America

While positive moments were recorded during the protests of police and peaceful demonstrators giving support to each other, news came that at least five police officers had been shot in St. Louis alone.

One, a black father, grandfather and 38-year-old retired veteran of the force, David Dorn, was left to bleed out on the street until he died. Another is in critical condition after being shot in the head.

Journalist Tucker Carlson correctly wondered what would be the long-term effect on the police force:

“How many more nights like this can we take? How many more nights like this before no one in America will serve as a police officer?” Carlson asked. “It’s not worth it. The people in charge hate you. The job doesn’t pay enough. At that point, who will enforce the laws? Who will be in charge?”

Carlson also lambasted “politicians, celebrities, corporate leaders, clergy, news anchors, professional athletes, almost every person in this country that we were raised from childhood to look up to and respect … [for] siding with the people burning police stations,”

Carlson continued:

“So the question is, how did murdering David Dorn advance the cause of racial justice? … No one explains, Biden didn’t. Meanwhile, Biden’s staff continued to send money to the rioters. Other Democrats followed in perfect sync.”

Carlson also had sharp words for CNN host Don Lemon and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for dismissing law enforcement and, in Tlaib’s case, supporting a post calling for the defunding of the police.

There is one thing we know with certainty about the current situation: Extremists have permanently changed the face of America. The riots of 2020 will be a watershed moment in our country’s history. There is no going back to the “old normal.” The question is, will we be able to go forward?

]]>Antifa protesters in NYC holding a sign which reads, ‘SMASH THE STATE’ in a previous protest in NY. Bot Twitter accounts by ‘Antifa’ have been trying to stoke violence in the current upheaval (Photo: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

As if the situation isn’t bad enough as it is, extremists are using bot Twitter accounts to incite even more violence.

President Trump rightly identified Antifa as one of the main extremist groups transforming what began as peaceful protests over the unjustified death of George Floyd at the hands of police into the violent riots we are now seeing.

And as if the chaos couldn’t be worse, technology has given tools to all extremist groups eager to foist an “acceleration” of violence to ultimately cause a dismantling of the structures that hold the country together.

Take the case of bot Twitter accounts. A bot account is a fake, automated account which uses an application program interface (API) to spread a message through Twitter at a rate and to a wide audience that isn’t possible to do manually.

For example, on Sunday night, a bot Twitter account announced a protest in Anaheim, California. The protest was orchestrated to compete with and confuse those going to a peaceful protest that was planned nearby around the same time.

The account was being used to incite violence against the police, rioting and looting. It was flagged as fake by this twitter user who posted:

The incident in Anaheim is a part of a larger complex framework being pushed by extremists looking to take advantage of the current political situation in America.

As quickly as this fake account was taken down, another account appeared on Twitter on Sunday night — a newly created Antifa account that promised the following violence:

“Tonigh’s the night, Comrades. Tonight we say ‘F— The City’ and we move into the residential areas… the white hoods… and we take what’s ours …”

Twitter took prompt action and shut down the account but not before the damage had already been done. The account had gone viral, inciting more potential violence and instilling fear and panic among Americans during an already tense time.

By Sunday night, Twitter had suspended several hundred accounts related to a fast-rising conspiracy theory that the protests in D.C. were being blacked out or covered up — an idea meant to stoke outrage and ultimately more violence.

In tracking those tweets, #DC Blackout started trending on Twitter with many accounts feigning concern and questioning why they hadn’t heard anything more about the D.C. protests in the last few hours.

Bot tweets can be very convincing, even for seasoned Twitter users who are used to scrolling through hundreds of tweets daily.

Between fake tweets and those who are trying to spark and accelerate the disintegration of America, we have a long road ahead of us both in quelling the riots and identifying the extremist groups that need to be dismantled.

Between local and federal law enforcement agencies, there appears to be ample evidence that outside agitators belonging at least in part (if not wholly) to Antifa, a Far-Left group, have played a huge part in transforming what began as peaceful protests against the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police into the violent rioting that is being seen today in the streets of American cities.

One Clarion source in Minneapolis reported how he watched the protests turn from demonstrations to organized riots, and how Antifa brought weapons to the protests. He estimated there were possibly between 10-12 outside groups. As Antifa is an amorphous group, it is hard to know how many of these groups were affiliated with Antifa.

Trump’s vow to designate Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization has been met with derision from the Left (which was predictable) as well as criticism from those who would also like to see white supremacists and neo-Nazi groups equally designated, as these groups are also dangerous, violent and act like terrorist organizations.

Yet today it is Antifa at the forefront. If we hadn’t seen the group’s true colors before (which we did), its current manifestation in the 2020 riots is one of violence and instigation to more violence. In fact, the group believes that their use of violence is actually justified as a self-defensive measure.

“The argument is that militant anti-fascism is inherently self-defense because of the historically documented violence that fascists pose, especially to marginalized people,” said Mark Bray, a history lecturer at Rutgers University and the author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.”

Yet, before we run away with this idea of domestic groups (Left or Right) being designated as terrorist organizations, it is good idea to look at the issue with a cool eye — and not with the passions that might have been ignited within us by watching our cities burn and local businesses – most of them built from scratch with bone-breaking work — being destroyed.

We need to ask: What is the best way to combat them and (equally important) not have our own civil rights put in jeopardy in the process?

In an article written in August 2017 when there was also talk of designating Antifa as a terrorist organization, Andy McCarthy lays out the case against such a designation.

McCarthy is no lightweight. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York. In that capacity he led the successful terrorism prosecution against Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman (“The Blind Sheikh”) and 11 others who were on trial for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and for planning a series of attacks on New York City landmarks.

While acknowledging that Antifa certainly engages in the legal definition of terrorist activity, here are the issues that McCarthy brings up regarding the designation issue:

Is designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization legal?

While we have laws that define “domestic terrorism” – categories that Antifa certainly falls into – McCarthy notes that it is not criminalized as such by federal law.

In fact, there is not even a law or legal process to designate a domestic group as a terrorist organization. This is in contrast to laws which clearly outline the procedure to designate a foreign terrorist organization.

Civil Rights Encroachment

American citizens and foreigners enjoy vastly different civil rights in America.

As McCarthy lays out:

“The legal process of designating foreign actors as terrorists is designed to facilitate the surveillance of alien operatives. Unlike Americans suspected of crimes, these foreign agents may be subjected to eavesdropping and searches under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] without showing probable cause of a crime.

“The designation of foreign terrorists and their facilitators further enables the government to track, freeze, and seize the assets of persons and entities suspected of foreign terror ties.”

Americans, by contrast, enjoy constitutionally protected free speech and the rights to assembly and privacy.

“When it comes to national security, then, we do not want the federal government investigating the constitutionally protected activities of Americans unless there are solid grounds to believe they are serving a foreign power (including a foreign or international terrorist organization).

“This is not just an airy theoretical position. There is a dark history of federal-government excess in investigations of sedition. Probes involving Communist penetration of our government and violent political radicalism in our streets have infamously resulted in domestic spying against innocent Americans who, however misguided their policy preferences may have been, were neither traitors nor insurrectionists.”

Speaking to those on the Right who were eager to see Antifa designated as a domestic terrorist organization in 2017, McCarthy doesn’t hold back in pointing out the crux of the civil rights issue:

“I know this sounds crazy, but Donald Trump will not be president forever. In fact, he hasn’t been president that long . . . meaning, it was not so long ago that we were dealing with an Obama administration — and its media-Democrat pom-pom squads — that regarded limited-government conservatives, Second Amendment proponents, and many veterans returning from overseas military service as ‘right-wing extremists’ who posed a threat of ‘domestic terrorism.’

“Someday, maybe sooner than we’d like to think, Democrats are going to be in power again. Do we really want to give them enhanced federal powers to harass ideological opponents under the guise of “designating” domestic terrorist threats?

What is the practical alternative?

McCarthy argues that, from a practical, law-enforcement perspective, those best able to counteract domestic terrorists are state and local police. A formal designation of a domestic terrorist group would put enforcement squarely into the hands of the feds, who have vastly understated numbers and less intelligence on the ground.

In 2017, New York City alone had 35,000 police officers in contrast to the FBI which employed 14,000 agents nationwide.

“Indeed, this is why the FBI invites robust local law-enforcement participation in its Joint Terrorism Task Forces, which are designed to combat both international and domestic terrorist operations on U.S. soil,” McCarthy points out.

In addition, while crimes committed by domestic terrorists usually violate state ordinances, they often lack clear jurisdictional hooks on a federal level.

So, why make life harder for law enforcement to get these thugs off our streets and engage in a protracted political battle that will further polarize the country?

Even if a move was made to even out the stakes by designating white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups as domestic terrorists, Antifa – like these other groups – is not a centralized organization.

Like all extremist groups that have amorphous qualities, some “members” range from those who “merely” subscribe to the group’s twisted ideology (still not a crime in America) to those who are able, willing and have proven their intention of “taking it to the streets” with two-by-fours and other deadly weapons.

Moving forward with any action to designate homegrown extremists as domestic terror organizations will have to answer all these serious issues raised above and find a way to get around such roadblocks.

Coronavirus lockdowns have shown us how quickly our civil rights can be taken away from us. Let us approach this issue with clear heads before we potentially give up some of those self-same rights ourselves.

Extremists in America (and outside the country) — from Antifa to white supremacists to Islamist radicals — thrive on the chaos created by every new upheaval. This time it’s the riots which are driving extremist groups to foster chaos. Even the mullahs in Iran are watching the situation closely and planning to capitalize on the
riots.

Already a number of months ago, Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi, a member of Iran’s Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution, said,

“We have to make our presence felt in the conflicts in America that involve blacks and people of color. There is fertile ground for this … America is the kind of country that will disintegrate quickly … There are layers of hatred, alienation and estrangement there … We need to send out several thousands of surplus people [to do this].

Watch Clarion Project’s national security analyst and Shillman Fellow Ryan Mauro peg the “War of the Extremes” and find out how what you can do to counter extremist ideologies:

]]>Firas Al Najim used his microphone, which he hooked up to the Toronto Jaffari Centre’s loud speaker system to spew hate (Photo: YouTube)

As the world holds its breath anticipating a second wave of the coronavirus, in my opinion the second wave of radicalization and extremism will come from the Shiites and be directed against Israel and the U.S.

In Toronto, it started with the death of Iranian arch-terrorist Qasem Soleimani. Majalis (gatherings) were held in Shiite mosques to commemorate and “give blessings” to the soul of Soleimani.

He was described as being a martyr for Islam, and the lectures were in Persian, Arabic and Urdu to obscure the message to the general public.

Then came the Islamist push to have the azaan (call to prayer) broadcast publicly during the month of Ramadan, the Islamic month that just ended.

Finally, an incident occurred at one of the largest Shiite mosques in Toronto. On May 16, Firas Al Najim used the mosque’s loudspeaker system to issue the call to prayer outside the Jaffari Islamic Centre in Thornhill, Ontario. While he had the mike, he used the opportunity to give a speech calling upon Muslims to refrain from doing any business transactions with “Zionists.”

“We want to speak also about an important fact. We need to pray for the Palestinian people in the Holy Land. And this centre here [the Jaffari Islamic Centre], the majority of the followers, they follow Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani, Ayatollah al-Sistani …

And he [Sistani] is totally against the occupation of Palestine, he is against the illegitimate Zionist regime. He [Sistani] calls for the liberation of the holy Palestine and also for boycotting all the Zionist businesses.

He said that it is illegal it is forbidden for any Muslim, especially the followers that follow him, to do any business transaction with any Zionist business, and this is on his website …”

Al Najim is the co-manager of an organization called Canadian Defenders for Human Rights (CD4HR), an anti-Israel organization (as can be seen his Twitter video promoting the organization’s “walkagainstIsrael” protest).

The day following the mosque rant, May 17, Thornhill MPP Gila Martow issued the following statement:

“Many have contacted me concerned about a recent online video showing a gentleman outside the Jaffari Islamic Community Centre in Thornhill Woods.

I am disappointed that this gentleman used his alleged permission from the City of Vaughan to spew anti-Zionist propaganda and anti-Semitic tropes with no regard for the vast majority of Vaughan residents who support living together in peace.

It is equally unfortunate that he would use a prayer for victims of COVID-19 to promote intolerance and misinformation about international legal issues.

I certainly hope that this gentleman’s message of intolerance and misinformation is not shared by the membership and families of the Jaffari Centre. I look forward to meaningful dialogue with them in the near future.”

Martow’s statement was followed by a statement the following day, May 18, by a press release from the vice president of the Jaffari Centre in which he claimed that Al Najim is not associated with the mosque. He further expressed concern about Martow’s statement, claiming that “does not know the individual [Al Najim],” even though last year he co-signed a letter written by Al Najim to the prime minister. There was no denunciation of Al Najim’s message in the the Jaffari Centre’s statement.

A full-court press led by CAIR-Canada (who now call themselves the National Council of Canadian Muslims, or NCCM) followed to discredit Martow and demand she issue an apology.

“As would have been abundantly clear if MPP Martow had endeavoured to undertake the appropriate diligence that a reasonable person would have expected by actually calling the Jaffari Community Centre, she would have been immediately informed that this video and message was made by someone who had no authorization to do so,” said Mustafa Farooq, CEO of NCCM.

Not surprisingly, on May 19, the very next day, a joint statement was issued by NCCM, the Jaffari Centre and Martow in which they say that they had a “meaningful dialogue.”

“MPP Martow wishes to thank the representatives of NCCM and ISIJ [the Jaffari Centre] for their understanding and willingness to confront intolerance. She also commits to contacting representatives of the organizations directly should any further unfortunate incidents occur, and apologizes for any hurt she caused to the community of the Jaffari Community Centre[my emphasis].”

Even though Canada officially severed its ties with Iran in 2012, it is very clear from this incident that there is a very strong presence of Iranian influence among the Canadian Shiite population.

]]>Congresswoman Ilhan Omar recently gave an interview in which she invoked antisemitic slurs, as she has done in the past (Photo: Scott Heins/Getty Images)

In a recent interview, U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar claims she has “moved past” the controversy her previous use of antisemitic slurs caused. Not so fast.

In February 2019, commenting on the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, Omar tweeted, “It’s all about the Benjamins baby 🎶 ”

Omar was referring to Jewish money (“Benjamins” are $100 bills) and its assumed influence on American politicians, a classic antisemitic slur.

She now claims her “expression of those things was hurtful to people” and that “has really broken my heart.”

Yet, in the same interview, she invokes the same antisemitic trope: that Jewish money wields untold power and influence over American politics, and specifically over President Trump.

This time, there was no clever allusion to “the Benjamins;” she made the slur outright.

Commenting on the Trump administration’s good relations with both Saudi Arabia and Israel (two countries she finds despicable), Omar said, “We know the amount of money and influence and connection that the Saudis have with the administration is really the reason that everything destructive they do is nullified. And that really is no different to what’s happening with Israel.”

“Money … influence … connection.” Sounds like the same antisemitic trope to me.

In case we missed her point, she continued: “There’s an alarming connection to the really destructive policies Israel is proposing and how much of it is being rubber stamped by this administration, and how much of it is being urged by Americans who have connection and influence with this administration.”

Perhaps clouded by her history of antisemitism, it has clearly not occurred to Omar that the Trump administration’s support for Israel might not have anything to do with the need for “Jewish money” and the “influence” it supposedly buys. (This is besides the fact that Trump is certainly rich enough on his own. In 2016, Trump spent $66 million of his own money on his presidential campaign.)

Let me suggest to Omar a few other reasons for the administration’s support for Israel:

Shared values

Shared defense strategies

Frustration with the intransigence of the Palestinian leadership who have rejected every statehood offer given to them (and unleashed war, terror and violence instead) from before the establishment of the state of Israel to the present, no matter how generous the offer was (a sentiment now shared by most of the Arab world)

Simple belief in the continued existence of the one Jewish state in the world, which necessarily entails defensible borders

Clueless to the overt antisemitism she expressed in the interview, Omar goes on to say, “I talk about Saudi blood money and them being bloodsuckers and no one says, ‘This is Islamophobic.’ But I know if I use those terms for another country [Israel] , that could be [a problem].”

Yes, calling the Jewish state “bloodsuckers” would definitely be a problem, given the world’s penchant for smearing Jews throughout history with “blood libels” (false claims that Jews slaughter Christians –particularly children – to use in their religious rituals).

Omar got one thing right in the interview: “And so you learn what history is tied to words,” she said.

This is certainly true when it comes to the Jews: Blood libels and antisemitic incitement have a long history of causing death to entire communities of Jews as well as individuals of the faith.

What Omar didn’t get right was her declaration that, “As someone who didn’t have an understanding [of “what history is tied to words”], I now do.”

Blackie Trahan was awarded $50 million in Iranian funds after losing his son and only child Lex, a Marine, in the barracks bombing in Beirut on October 23, 1983.

The attack took the lives of 307 people, including 241 U.S. and 58 French military personnel who were members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon.

Trahan, from Lafayette, Louisiana, sued the Iranian government after a federal judge ruled in 2003 that Iran directed the attack and the families of victims were allowed to sue the Iranian government for damages.

The Supreme Court later allowed the families to collect $1.75 billion in Iranian funds.

The attack was carried out by two suicide bombers, one who drove an explosives-laden truck into the service building (the American barracks) and another who drove a truck into the nine-story Drakkar building a few kilometers away, where the French contingent was stationed.

In addition to the deaths, 115 were wounded in the attack.

Although a group called Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombings, there is ample evidence that the attack was carried out by the Iranian-proxy terror group Hezbollah and directed by Iran. Syria is also suspected of involvement in the attack.

“He was not supposed to be sent to combat being an only child, there’s an exception. So he called and pleaded with his parents, to tell the Marines to allow him to go with his company, who reluctantly agreed,” said Trahan’s attorney Warren Perrin speaking to KATC news channel.

“Fortunately the federal judge saw that the Trahan’s and many other families deserved compensation for the loss of their loved ones.”

Perrin said he was confident the families would receive annual installments.

Perrin explained that the money would come from two sources: One is from a fund that has already been designated to pay victims of terrorist attacks. The money in the fund comes from fines assessed against banks and governments that break international law.

The second source consists of $1 billion in Iranian assets that were seized and are currently being held by a company in Luxembourg.

Payments from this second fund need to be freed by Congress. Perrin says that Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) has offered his assistance in getting a bill passed to release the funds.

Nothing seems to stop honor killings. One would think that with COVID-19 gripping the world, there would be more compassion for human life and caring for each other –as well in the Muslim world, especially during the month of Ramadan during which there is an emphasis on kindness, compassion, self-reflection and charity.

However, some things never change as we read about the recent honor killings in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

When the Clarion award-winning documentary Honor Diaries was released in 2013, there was a surge of awareness and some changes did take place internationally which were a step in the right direction. In October 2016, Pakistan passed a bill that fixed a loophole that allowed killers to escape prosecution if pardoned by the victim’s family.

Previously, family members who were complicit in the crime could also forgive those who had committed it.

That new legislation came three months after Qandeel Baloch, a Pakistani social media star and feminist, was killed by her brother for “dishonoring the family.”

While honor killings in Pakistan now carry a life sentence, they remain common in Pakistan’s remote tribal areas — and the majority are against women perceived to have brought “shame” to their families.

In Pakistan, two women were murdered in a so-called “honor killing” after a video showing them kissing a man circulated online.

The cousins, aged 22 and 24, were shot and buried on May 14 in a remote village in Pakistan’s North Waziristan province.

In a statement, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said that many people who had condemned the Waziristan murders on social media had been “threatened or ridiculed” and called on the authorities to “make it clear to all that it will not tolerate any support for this heinous practice.”

Adding to the horror of the act, the father of one of the victims and the other victim’s brother confessed to killing the women.

This clearly shows that the concept of honor is more important to the men than the lives of the women they kill.

In Afghanistan, with the departure of U.S. troops, there was always fear that the Taliban would go back to their inhuman practices. Yet, the latest honor killing in Badakhshan, Afghanistan was not even Taliban related.

Nazela, an 18-year-old woman, was strangled with electric wire and then stabbed to death by her brother on May 1. She allegedly ran away with her boyfriend, taking refuge in a police station. Her brother came and had her released, took her home and killed her. The brother then escaped to an area where Islamist militants live. He has now taken refuge with the Taliban.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission writes in its 2018/2019 Summary Report on Violence against Women that violence against women in 2019 was about 8.4 percent higher than in 2018.

According to this report, while various types of violence against women are on the rise, “one of the shocking forms of physical violence that leads to the killing of women is honor killings. The Commission has documented about 238 incidents of murder of women separately during this period [2019], 96 of which constitute honor killings. This figure was about 261 in 2018.”

Until the time that men and women in rural areas are educated about respect for human life and especially for women, this horrific cycle of honor-related killings will not go away.

Unfortunately, the perpetrators are not afraid of prison or death because they have been brainwashed into believing that the honor of the family, tribe and village is embodied in the actions and bodies of women whom they treat like second-class human beings, and that preserving the so-called honor of the family is more important than a human life.

]]>Where Was US Intel in the Corpus Christi, Pensacola Attacks?https://clarionproject.org/us-intel-dropped-ball-corpus-christi-pensacola-attacks/
Mon, 25 May 2020 11:30:09 +0000https://clarionproject.org/?p=64063A major intel flaw just months after the Pensacola fiasco

]]>The US intel community just dropped the ball twice (Clarion Project)

Shillman Fellow and Director of Clarion Intelligence Network Ryan Mauro warns the US intel community to get its act together or we are in store for further disasters (watch video below).

While details are still forthcoming about the recent shooting attack at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, preliminary reports show the attacker most likely was a supporter of Salafi-jihadist ideology. Social media accounts linked to the shooter showed posts supporting ISIS and al-Qaeda.

How could such a major intel flaw happen just a few months after the one that facilitated the deadly attack by a Saudi student at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida last December?

With the cracking of the Saudi student’s iPhones by federal authorities last week, we now know that the Saudi was radicalized in 2015 and specifically joined the Saudi military in order to carry out an attack.

Yet he was allowed into the U.S. After the attack, all the other Saudi students at the naval station were vetted and 21 were deported.

While details are still forthcoming in the weekend attack at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, preliminary reports show the attacker most likely was a supporter of Salafi-jihadist ideology.

Twenty-year-old Adam Alsahli was killed after he accelerated the vehicle he was driving towards the gate of the naval station early Thursday morning, crashed into the barrier and began shooting.

Alsahli hit a member of the station’s security force, however she was protected by a bulletproof vest and sustained minor injuries. She was knocked to the ground but was able to roll over and hit a switch that raised a barrier, preventing Alsahli from entering the base. Other sailors then responded, shooting Alsahli.

No bombs were found in Alsahli’s vehicle or on his body.

A source quoted by News Channel 3 indicated that officials identified several social media accounts most likely connected to Alsahli. Postings in these accounts expressed support for ISIS and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The shooter, who was born in Syria, was a resident of Corpus Christi and a U.S. citizen. He was conferred citizenship at age three through his father, who had become a naturalized citizen in 1984.

Alsahli moved to the U.S. with his mother and possible other siblings in 2014 at the height of the Syrian civil war. His mother is currently a legal permanent resident who has applied for citizenship and whose case is currently pending.

The attack follows the announcement last week by the U.S. Justice Department and FBI that the Islamist terrorist who attacked the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida in December 2019 was connected to al-Qaeda and had planned the attack for years before coming to the U.S.

Mohammed Alshamrani, who killed three and injured eight in the shooting attack in Pensacola, was a Saudi national studying at the Naval Air Station.

The disclosure was made possible after federal technicians were able to unlock Alshamrani’s two iPhones after months of failed attempts. Apple refused to open Alshamrani’s phones for U.S. law enforcement agencies.

In addition, a report was released last week by the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Center on Extremism that showed there was a 50 percent increase in domestic Islamist extremism in 2019. Of the 30 arrests made in 2019, nine were for plotting Islamist terror attacks.

In the current case in Corpus Christi, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.